Quotes of the Duke of Wellington

I
used to say of him [Napoleon] that his presence on the
field made the difference of forty thousand men.

I
don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy,
but, by God, they frighten me.

Nothing
except a battle lost can be half as melancholy as a battle
won.

The
whole art of war consists in getting at what is on the
other side of the hill.

All
the business of war, and indeed all the business of life,
is to endeavor to find out what you don't know by what
you do; that's what I called 'guessing what was at the
other side of the hill.'

It
has been a damned serious business - Blücher and I have
lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing - the
nearest run thing you ever saw in your life...By God!
I don't think it would have done if I had not been there.

Yes, and they went down very well too. - A retort to a comment on how very well French cavalry
had come up at Waterloo.

Up,
Guards, and at 'em.

It
is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleon's
presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the
balance. This is a very loose way of talking; but the
idea is a very different one from that of his presence
at a battle being equal to a reinforcement of forty thousand
men.

I
never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.- Of the British Parliament.

My
rule always was to do the business of the day in the day.

The
only thing I am afraid of is fear.

People
talk of their enlisting from their fine military feeling
- all stuff - no such thing. Some of our men enlist from
having got bastard children -- some for minor offences
-- many more for drink.

Hard pounding, gentlemen. Let's see who pounds the longest.

Wise people learn when they can; fools learn when they
must.

We
always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall
be detested in France.

As Lord Chesterfield said of the generals of his day,
'I only hope that when the enemy reads the list of their
names, he trembles as I do.'"

The
battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.
- attributed to Wellington, but doubtful.

Ours (our army) is composed of the scum of the earth -
the mere scum of the earth.

Publish
and be damned.- Replying to a blackmail threat.

My Lord,
If I attempted to answer the mass of futile correspondence
which surrounds me, I should be debarred from the serious
business of campaigning...
So long as I retain an independent position, I shall see
no officer under my command is debarred by attending to
the futile driveling of mere quill-driving from attending
to his first duty, which is and always has been to train
the private men under his command that they may without
question beat any force opposed to them in the field.
- To the Secretary of State for War during the Peninsular
Campaign

I mistrust the judgement of every man in a case in which
his own wishes are concerned.

Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary
to be mysterious about any.

Being
born in a stable does not make one a horse- A retort to being called Irish.

It has been a damned nice thing - the nearest run thing
you ever saw in your life, by God!

Another
Side to the Iron Duke

The
Duke once met a little boy, crying by the road. "Come
now, that's no way for a young gentleman to behave. What's
the matter?" he asked.
"I have to go away to school tomorrow," sobbed the child,
"and I'm worried about my pet toad. There's no-one else
to care for it and I shan't know how it is."
Keen to ease the little chap's discomfort, the Duke promised
to attend to the matter personally.
After the boy had been at school for just over a week,
he received a note: "Field Marshall the Duke of Wellington
presents his compliments to Master ---- and has the pleasure
to inform him that his toad is well."